


Tears

by whutnot



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Angst, F/F, Lin being protective of Kya, Mako being surprised his boss has a life, but with some fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:33:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28366215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whutnot/pseuds/whutnot
Summary: Mako is surprised at who he finds crying at Kya's bedside after the fight with the Red Lotus
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Kya II
Comments: 18
Kudos: 232





	Tears

**Author's Note:**

> discord convinced me to post this, so I hope it's good!

He’s not sure what he’s hearing at first, because as far as he knows, Beifongs are physically incapable of crying, and he didn’t even think the Chief and Kya were that close. But there is Lin Beifong, hunched over next to Kya’s bed, her hand over her face as she weeps. Mako debates coming back another time, but Councilman Tenzin said it was important, that Lin needed to be at this meeting. 

So he gathers his courage and knocks gently on the door frame.

Lin jumps, whipping around to glare at him. “What the fuck, Mako! You can’t just fucking sneak up on people like that!” She hides her face for a moment, probably trying to wipe her tears, and Mako resolutely pretends like he doesn’t see.

“Sorry, Chief. I uh, I knocked.”

Lin growls in response, but he thinks that it distinctly lacks its usual ferocity. “What do you want?”

“Uh, Councilman Tenzin said that he needs you in a meeting.”

“Spirits,  _ now _ ?” 

He knows he doesn’t imagine it when she glances back down at Kya’s unconscious form. The waterbender has been out for almost two days, even with a healing session, but they’ve been assured that she will be fine. 

“He said it was important.”

Lin closes her eyes for a moment, and Mako thinks she looks like she’s about to come undone. He’s never seen her like this, and he’s shaken. In his mind, Lin is about as vulnerable as a mountain, and twice as formidable. Sometimes he forgets that she’s human, too. 

“Tell him I’ll be there in a minute.” She doesn’t look at him, and he sees her hand move to cover Kya’s. He knows they must be friends. They grew up together, didn’t they? And Lin did date Kya’s brother, after all. But this feels like more.

“They said Kya’s going to be fine,” he ventures, and he is rewarded with an icy glare from Lin.

“Yeah, I fucking know what the healer said.”

“Sorry, I just meant...Sorry.”

Lin turns away again, and he can hear her take a deep breath. She keeps her face forward and says, “She’s my wife.”

Mako doesn’t know what he expected her to say, but it’s certainly not this. He’s worked for Lin for two years almost now, and not once has she mentioned a spouse or a boyfriend. Or a  _ girlfriend _ . Certainly not a wife. Mako had been under the impression that Lin lived at work, lived for work. 

“Oh.”

“It’s not a secret,” Lin continues, and now her face is tilted down, her eyes soft, softer than he’s ever seen them, as she looks over her wife. “I just don’t broadcast it.”

“I didn’t know.” He takes a few steps closer, but stops when Lin tenses. “I can sit with her while you’re in the meeting.”

Lin glances back at him. “I just thought I would get a moment with her.”

She’s dropped her guard, it seems, and he hopes he can keep from saying the wrong thing. If she’s trusting him, then he needs to prove she’s not making a mistake. 

“I’m sure Tenzin wouldn’t ask for you unless absolutely necessary.” Because he assumes that Tenzin must know that his sister and his ex are married, right? But when he thinks about it, he’s not so sure. It is the kind of thing Lin might pull.

“Yeah, I know.” She sounds so tired and worn, and Mako has the insane urge to hug her. She’s rough and prickly, but he’s starting to think of her as more than just his boss. He cares about her. 

“But, I’m sure it can wait a little longer.” He’ll make excuses. Say he can’t find her. Buy her a few more minutes. 

When Lin looks at him this time, she really looks at him. She studies him the same way she studies a crime scene, putting all the pieces of him together in her mind. 

“I don’t need you to protect me from Tenzin. I can handle him.”

“I know.” And he does. If Lin wants, she can put Tenzin in his place herself without a second thought. Mako thinks she needs someone else to help her, though, because it must be exhausting to be Lin Beifong. “But, uh, Chief...I want to help.” 

She must be tired, truly tired, because she just gives a small nod, and Mako heads back to Tenzin, claiming he can’t find the Chief of Police. But there is only so long he can keep them away, especially when Tenzin casually tells him to check Kya’s room.

So, warily, he returns.

This time, Lin has composed herself, and she stands to meet him. “Stay with her. Please.”

The ‘please’ almost kills him.

“Of course, Chief.”

“She’s everything to me, Mako. Do you understand?”

He nods, swallowing because Lin has him pinned under her sharp green eyes. “Yes.”

“I thought I lost her, and I-” She cuts herself off, and he can see her jaw work as she tries to keep her emotions in check. “I should have been there.”

“It’s not your fault. You were protecting Korra.”

“And I couldn’t fucking do that either.”

“Chief, Korra made a decision. That’s not on you.”

“We should have gotten to her faster.”

Mako realizes she hasn’t talked to anyone about this. He thinks Kya’s the person who usually gets to hear Lin’s fears and frustrations, but Kya is still unconscious, and Lin needs to vent.

“I know how you feel. She’s my friend, and I let her get hurt. But we can’t blame ourselves.”

Lin seems to realize that she’s shared too much, and her expression grows steely. “I better go find the Airhead before he sends an entire search party.” She nods to him gruffly, and Mako sighs as he sits by Kya. 

It feels like hours that he stays there, alone with the sleeping Kya. Asami is with Korra and Bolin is with Opal, and he wonders what’s going to happen to them all. This is shattering, something that will change everything, and he doesn’t want it to change. He wants to go back to their time in Zaofu when Korra was all laughs and smiles as she learned metalbending. When Bolin’s biggest worry was trying to get Opal to like him. When things weren’t weird anymore between him and Asami. 

A groan next to him pulls him from his thoughts, and he sees Kya trying to sit up. “Hold on, don’t try to get up.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Kya mutters. She frowns, though as she looks around.

“Lin was here,” Mako explains. “She’s in a meeting with Tenzin and Raiko.”

Kya regards him carefully. “She told you about us?”

“Um, yeah. I kind of walked in on her crying.” It feels like a betrayal of Lin’s trust, but Kya’s Lin’s wife, right? She can know these things.

“I bet she loved that.”

“Not so much. Should I go get the healer?”

Kya rubs at her shoulder, wincing. “As much as I hate to say it, yes.”

“Um...I don’t know if the Chief would like it if I leave you alone.”

“I’ll handle her.” And as tired as Kya must be, she still manages to give him a wink. 

With one last moment of hesitation, Mako heads down to where the healer is staying. It only takes a few minutes to retrieve him, but Mako is anxious the entire time, sure that Lin will catch him away from his post. He has to remind himself that watching her wife (wife!) isn’t actually part of his job. 

Kya is trying to sit up when he returns and gives him a sheepish smile as he glares. She’s just as bad as Lin, he thinks.

The healer takes over, then, and Mako sits back as the healer and Kya talk. He doesn’t understand most of it, but Kya seems to. He guesses that’s because she’s a master healer herself. The hope is that when she’s better, she’ll be able to help Korra. He tries not to think about how much they’re all counting on Kya. If she can’t help Korra, then he doesn’t know what they will do. 

He almost feels it when Lin returns. He swears the ground shakes with her approach.

“Kya!”

“I’m fine, sweetheart.”

**_Sweetheart?_ **

Mako works hard to keep his face impassive as Lin brushes by him, kneeling at Kya’s bedside like there is no one else in the room. If he’s lucky, she’ll forget he’s there at all and he can slip out while they’re busy.

“You’ve been out for two days, Kya. You’re not fine.”

“Maybe not, but I’m not dying. Mako’s been watching over me.”

He winces as Lin turns to look at him, but her eyes are soft, and she gives him a small nod before turning back to Kya.

For a moment longer, he stays and listens to Kya convince her wife that she’s going to be fine. But it feels much too intimate, like he’s intruding on something intensely private. Even Kya’s brothers aren’t here. So Mako slips away, leaving them to their conversation, and makes his way back to the dormitories. 

He never does quite look at Lin the same way. But he thinks this is a good thing. And sometimes she lets him see glimpses of her life, like flowers Kya sends to the station, or off-handed mentions of going to dinner with her wife, and Mako knows that he’s earned a precious privilege that few people in the world have.

And when he thinks about it, he can’t help but smile.


End file.
